{"id":14516,"date":"2025-04-12T19:18:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T19:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14516\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T19:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T19:18:22","slug":"might-get-worse-serena-williams-ex-coach-pinpoints-reason-for-coco-gauffs-struggles-amid-slow-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14516\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Might get worse’ – Serena Williams’ ex coach pinpoints reason for Coco Gauff’s struggles amid slow 2025 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 season has been a struggle for Coco Gauff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American tennis star has suffered multiple early exits across WTA tournaments and former Serena Williams<\/a> coach Rick Macci believes he knows why.<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff hasn’t had the best start to her tennis seasonCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Gauff’s poor showing this season<\/a> was confirmed when she relinquished her title as the top-ranked American player and dropped to world No.4, with Jessica Pegula replacing her.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since that United Cup win with Team USA in early January, Gauff has failed to make any impact in the tournaments that have followed.<\/p>\n

She first suffered a quarter-final defeat to Paula Badosa in at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old then suffered further losses to Martha Kostyuk in Doha before losing to McCartney Kessler 6-4, 7-5 in Dubai.<\/p>\n

Her home tournaments at Indian Wells and the Miami Open did not offer any reassurances to Gauff either as she was upset by Belinda Bencic and Magda Linette, respectively.<\/p>\n

Much of Gauff’s struggles have come down to her serve and forehand, a skill that Macci believes she needs to rewire.<\/p>\n

“Might get worse before better unless a science based approach is used to rewire,” Macci said referencing her forehand.<\/p>\n

“With speed like a member of the USA TRACK and two elite double BEES (Backhand\/ Backbone) Coco is Special. C<\/p>\n

“Can fight to many wins. If she takes a step back I know for sure she will go many more steps forward and most of all stay there.”<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time that Macci has called for Gauff to improve her skills.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"After<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

After poor showings Gauff has dropped to World No. 4Credit: Getty\"NEW<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Rick Macci coached both Serena and Venus Williams when they were youngCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n

\u201cCoco has untapped potential and can get to number one and most of all stay there,\u201d Macci said on X back in early March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf second serve becomes an asset and forehand become her best shot, her first serve SOMEDAY can hit 130 mph as she continues to tweak. Make up speed is as good as the sport has ever seen.”<\/p>\n

Macci also isn’t the only ex-coach of Williams to call for Gauff to improve<\/a> her serve and forehand.<\/p>\n

Rennae Stubbs, who coached Williams in 2022, said on her podcast<\/a>: \u201cHer technique fails under pressure and when you\u2019re playing outside \u2013 a lot of her success last year and even at the beginning of this year was played indoors \u2013 there\u2019s no wind or variables.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a technique that is questionable at times, whether it be the second serve and the service motion, and the service grip, all that sort of stuff and the forehand, it affects your game more.”<\/p>\n

Stubbs went further, claiming Gauff’s forehand issues may never be solved, and that it’s up to her to adapt her game to mitigate her weakness.<\/p>\n

The greatest tennis coach ever analyses Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek’s forehands<\/p>\n

“Her technique on her forehand is always going to be a problem for her going forehand. So it\u2019s a matter of can she get over those humps. Can she get through the tough three-set match, which she didn\u2019t last week,” Stubbs added.<\/p>\n

Gauff herself brushed off criticism at Indian Wells a few weeks ago when asked about her worrying form.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone makes a bigger deal than what it is,\u201d Gauff told reporters about her struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll lose more matches back to back. It\u2019s going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Gauff will look to kick start her season at the Madrid Open at the end of this month.<\/p>\n

The tournament is on a clay, a surface she has had success on in the past.<\/p>\n

She won the French Open<\/a> doubles in 2024, a year after reaching the singles final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 season has been a struggle for Coco Gauff. The American tennis star has suffered multiple early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[10088,4294,4723,6740,10090,10099,10093,10098,10094,5066,10092,10091,10100,10095,10096,79,1068,10097,5838,16,15,5067,10089,5068,10087,10101,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-14516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-american-tennis","9":"tag-atp","10":"tag-australian-open","11":"tag-coco-gauff","12":"tag-coco-gauff-enterprises","13":"tag-coco-gauff-forehand","14":"tag-coco-gauff-new-agent","15":"tag-coco-gauff-serve","16":"tag-coco-guaff-management-firm","17":"tag-french-open","18":"tag-indian-wells","19":"tag-miami-open","20":"tag-rick-macci","21":"tag-serena-williams","22":"tag-serena-williams-ex-coach","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-tennis","25":"tag-tennis-goat","26":"tag-tennis-news","27":"tag-uk","28":"tag-united-kingdom","29":"tag-us-open","30":"tag-us-tennis","31":"tag-wimbledon","32":"tag-womens-tennis","33":"tag-womens-sport","34":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114326609152258446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}